Countering spectacles of fear: Anonymous’ meme ‘war’ against ISIS

Abstract

In recent years, the terrorist network Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has generated what might be referred to as a ‘spectacle of fear’ through strategic dissemination of execution videos and other graphic material. In response, social media users, activists and others circulate ‘counter-spectacles’, attempting to circumvent Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s spectacle of fear. An important case in point is the global hacking network Anonymous declaring ‘war’ against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, including a global call for a ‘Troll ISIS Day’. This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the spectacle of fear generated by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the counter-spectacle created through Anonymous’ trolling practices and explores empirically how Anonymous uses humor to combat fear through the memes produced on ‘Troll ISIS Day’. Bottom-up, cultural forms such as memes are increasingly woven into strategies for countering the fear associated with terrorism, and they represent the potential for humor to generate public engagement. However, as these memetic counter-spectacles draw on the incongruent humor characteristic of meme culture, they both contest and adopt strategies of fear, pointing to ethical challenges inherent in the counter-spectacle.